Ayuda Mutua: Support Families in Milwaukee

Throughout the country, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deep inequities on which our society and economy are built. Already vulnerable communities, such as the Latinx, immigrant, and undocumented communities on the southside of Milwaukee, now face greater economic insecurity than before. 

Ayuda Mutua MKE, an informal group of seven Latinx artists, cultural workers, and herbalists, was formed to help community members on the Southside of Milwaukee whose livelihoods are deeply affected by COVID-19. As of now, Ayuda Mutua is helping support 280 families daily with food, rent, and other necessary funds. 

We have set up a food distribution system to ensure that families can either pick up food each week or have it dropped off to them. We are helping with funds for rent, health care, diapers, and other essential items. This is solidarity, not charity: With 280 families and growing, we are asking for your solidarity in helping fund our efforts.

Ayuda Mutua also is focused on supporting workers in the community. Laborers in the community who are afraid to speak up about safety in their workplaces are turning to us for help and advice. These include people with serious health problems and pre-existing conditions, and people over the age of 55 who are nonetheless being forced to show up at the workplace without hazard pay or paid time off. These and others in our community are asking for advice, resources, and recommendations on how to advocate for themselves. 

Ayuda Mutua MKE was founded to help fill the immediate gaps in all these areas. In the absence of larger structural changes in economic systems, such mutual aid efforts will not be nearly enough in the longer term.

Meanwhile, our community is full of people who need our help right now. We are seeking your support to help us supply food, pay rent, ensure families are able to buy necessary medications and to fill a range of other needs. And because essential information coming out of the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the State of Wisconsin, and the City of Milwaukee are often not translated into other languages at all, or if they are, they are not culturally responsive, we have also stepped in to translate materials and share them throughout our communities via different means.

Ayuda Mutua MKE is not a formal organization, but a group of committed people working in solidarity with our community. We cannot wait for governmental entities to provide our people with the means to survive this pandemic.  We need your solidarity now.